Brightstorm math help really covers everything from Algebra to Precalculus
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) August 22, 2009
Every school night, high school students in the US spend millions of hours completing their math homework. They often get stuck, and have few resources to turn to. Their parents struggle to help them with the newest "new math," their textbooks further confound them, and online resources are often difficult to find and just plain confusing. What these students lack is a friendly, knowledgeable teacher who can explain math concepts 24/7. Brightstorm, the leading provider of online learning services to high school students, has launched just such a solution--Free Math Help.
Brightstorm's mission is to bring great teaching to the world. The company recruits the best teachers in the country, and then works with them to create high-quality, video-based learning solutions. Brightstorm's free math help offering includes over 1,800 videos of great teachers explaining every topic contained in Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2 and Precalculus. The videos are short, averaging about 5 minutes each, to correspond to the attention span of the online generation. For each math topic, the teacher has a short video explaining the concept and then a few short videos walking through sample problems.
"The whole purpose of this is for that student who goes home, is working on their homework assignment, and for some reason they're just not getting it," says Brian McCall, Brightstorm's Geometry teacher. "They have to get their homework done, but they don't have that teacher right next them. Now, with Brightstorm, every student can have a great teacher at their side."
"Brightstorm's free math help is a major step toward achieving our vision of a world in which millions of students learn through technology," says Brightstorm CEO Jeff Marshall. "In today's networked world, there is no reason why a student should struggle with their math homework. Students should be able to have easy access to great teachers explaining the concepts they're struggling with. That's what Brightstorm's free math help solution is all about."
Brightstorm focuses heavily on content quality, to ensure that every user has a positive learning experience. Quality includes both video production values and great teaching. Brightstorm films its videos in high-definition, and uses a video player to automatically adjust the quality of the video to the user's bandwidth. Brightstorm picked its initial math help teachers after an extensive interview process that identified teachers who both know their subjects deeply, and are especially engaging on camera. The result--four great teachers covering every topic from Algebra 1 through Precalculus (Calculus will be launched during the school year).
"Before this program was started, it would have been hard to find a site that was reasonably priced on which you could find everything that you needed. Now, with Brightstorm's math help, students can find something good," says Brightstorm's Precalculus teacher Norm Prokup.
Brightstorm also focused on comprehensiveness. With over 1,800 free math help videos, the offering is designed to meet the needs of every one of those millions of students completing their homework each school night.
"Brightstorm math help really covers everything from Algebra to Precalculus," says Mr. Prokup. "If you're in the high school math curriculum, you can find what you're looking for."
With such a large library of free math help topics, user-friendly search functionality becomes critical to a positive customer experience. Brightstorm uses cutting-edge search functionality to display the most relevant search results, and allow users to preview math topics from the search interface itself, so that users can quickly find the video that meets their needs.
"Creating great math videos is only half the battle," says Mr. Marshall. "Content is only good if the learner can find it quickly, so user-friendly search and browse have been a major focus for Brightstorm math help."
All this adds up to a solution designed to be ultra-convenient for the user who needs just-in-time math help--the exact explanation they need, when and where they need it.
"It's kind of like your back-pocket math teacher, who can explain those difficult concepts to you." says Alissa Fong, Brightstorm's Algebra 1 teacher. "You can review the video, and watch it over and over--from your home."
Brightstorm also helps students help each other. If a student has questions about a video, she can enter the question in Brightstorm Answers, and members of the Brightstorm community can respond. And, of course, students can easily share the free math help videos with links to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and email.
"Learning with our great teacher videos is only the beginning," says Mr. Marshall. "Ultimately, Brightstorm's free math help will serve as a foundation from which millions of learners can connect and learn together."
Brightstorm's free math help offering is now live at http://www.brightstorm.com.
About Brightstorm (http://www.brightstorm.com):
Brightstorm is advancing the learning economy through an online learning network that empowers teens, teachers and parents to shape the future of education. Brightstorm partners with the best teachers in the country to create online, video-based test prep and high school help solutions that enable teens do better in school and get into college. Brightstorm offers teacher videos in short, personalized formats that include practice tests, downloadable materials, live interaction with Brightstorm experts and comprehensive study guides. Brightstorm's online video network allows great teachers to reach and inspire millions of teens, while providing those teens with the anytime and anywhere digital consumption they expect. The net result is a powerful network where teens learn more, expert teachers are able to reach more students, and parents can play a more active role in helping their students learn confidently. Brightstorm is a venture-backed company based in San Francisco, CA. For more information please visit http://www.brightstorm.com.
Contact:
Bum Soo Kim, Co-Founder and COO
Brightstorm, Inc.
415-814-1369
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